


Before and After

by Plumetta



Category: The Handmaid's Tale (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-07
Updated: 2018-05-07
Packaged: 2019-05-03 08:12:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14564757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Plumetta/pseuds/Plumetta
Summary: A look at Rita's life before Gilead.





	Before and After

**Author's Note:**

> I include photos of dolls in most of the fandoms I write for but this is my first story for The Handmaid's Tale. This is my take on Rita's life before she became a Martha. The universe belongs to Margaret Atwood, Hulu, MGM no copyright infringement is intended.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/102571865@N06/40133284390/in/dateposted-public/)  
Rita answered the phones at a trendy doctor’s office. She often spent more on her clothes than she’d like to keep up with the patients. But today she was shopping for her son’s high school graduation. It took a long lunch at Macy’s and going through the sales in the men’s department but she finally found a suit she was sure he would love. He was going to the University of Massachusetts in Lowell. He wanted to get a degree in Computer Science and dreamed of being the next Steve Jobs

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/102571865@N06/41222006824/in/dateposted-public/)

 

Four years later

 

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/102571865@N06/41896354122/in/dateposted-public/)

 

Rita was kneading bread for the Commander’s dinner rolls. It was a warm day in June. The time of year when kids used to graduate. Now only rich men went to university and only boys learned to read. School was also year round because idle hands are the Devil’s playground. If the world had been different, her son would be in a cap and gown today and she’d be a proud Mom. Her son wouldn’t recognize her today. These drab clothes and baking bread from scratch. They used to eat take out three or four times a week and burgers or mac and cheese the rest. She was always so tired from work. She didn’t know what tired was then. She didn’t know that just after her son started school the country would fall apart. She didn’t know the scholarship kids would be forced into service for Gilead. It was May 1st when The Guardians showed up at her door and said her son was killed in the Battle of Boston. He died honorably in service and the nation was grateful. But she would have to move from her house because a woman could no longer own property and her son was her closest living male relative. But because of his service the Guardians had secured a position for her as of a Martha at a prominent Commander’s house. Blessed Be…..Under His Eye.

 

Rita shook her head. No time to stay in the past. Look to the future. The new Handmaid was coming today.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/102571865@N06/41222008794/in/dateposted-public/)


End file.
